Deoband against remarriage if spouse is alive

New fatwa

Known for its strict interpretation of the ‘Shariat’ (Islamic law) and ‘conservative’ approach to social issues concerning the Muslim community, Islamic seminary Darul Uloom, Deoband, has advised Muslims against second marriage when the first spouse is living.

Explaining its stand on the matter the renowned Islamic seminary said as per the Indian custom second marriage was not ‘generally acceptable.’

The seminary’s Darul Ifta (department of fatwa)  said this in a ‘fatwa’ (religious decree) issued on Tuesday last in response to a query.  The ‘fatwa’ was a deviation from the ‘Sharia’, which allowed the Muslim men to have four wives at the same time.

“According to Shariah, it is lawful to keep two wives at the same time but it is not generally acceptable in Indian custom. Here in India it likely to invite hundreds of problems to keep two wives,” the ‘fatwa’ said. “Moreover, the husband generally cannot maintain justice and equality between two wives. Hence it is better to have only one wife as the Quran said...you should discard the idea of second marriage; otherwise you would feel sorry later,” the ‘fatwa’ went on to add.

The questioner, who had been married for nine years and had two children, had sought to know if he could marry his former ‘love’ even though his wife was alive.

“During my college days I loved a Muslim girl though it was a one sided love. She did not accept it then. I met her recently and found that she was still not married and again I gave her my proposal for marriage and she accepted it and now we are planning to get married, she has no problem with my first marriage and she also knows that I have  two children. Please advise me whether it will be good for me to marry a second time,” the questioner sought to know.

The seminary is known for issuing ‘fatwa’ on issues of social importance. ‘Fatwa’ on trivial issues have attracted criticism from different quarters. Only recently the seminary said that the ‘Sharia’ did not allow Muslim women to run beauty parlours as  ‘adornment’ was not allowed in Islam.

In another ‘fatwa’  issued recently the Darul Uloom said that a divorce by a man in an inebriated state was valid in the eye of Sharia. Another ‘fatwa’ prohibited the Muslim youths from ‘falling in love with a non-Muslim girl and befriending any girl, who is a stranger’.

Earlier, it had issued a fatwa saying video recording was no evidence in a Muslim marriage in the eye of the ‘Sharia’. 

The seminary has also said that body scanning was not ‘un-Islamic’ and the Muslims should try and get themselves exempted from the same.